The London Daily Telegraph pioneered some years ago a franker approach to obituary writing in which journalists were prepared to write about the failings and eccentricities, as well as the virtues, of their subjects.

Even though we know that eventually we'll be moving on, inevitably we settle into the life of a community, we make friends, we get used to people and they get used to us - our eccentricities, our idiosyncrasies.

With his flair and instinct for comedy, he became famous in the ‘screwball comedy’ genre, which was all about the foibles and eccentricities of people.